Laylah the deer mouse
by Mastermindhunter
Summary: Laylah is a little deer mouse, the size of a quarter, and has dreams of a life beyond the walls of a boarding house. Join her on a journey to find a place she belongs. A spinoff of Center State by Cuddles1234XD. Rated T just in case.
1. Mouse slipping

**For those of you who are wondering this is a spin off of Cuddles1234XD's story _"Center state"_. In the story the four penguins get sent to different parts of the counrty, mainly the four corners of the U.S. Rico is sent to Washington, Skipper is sent to Maine, Kowalski is sent to southern Florida, and Private is sent to southern California. As for Private, along his misplacement, he meets a little California deer mouse no larger than the size of his foot. She is a big part of his travel home, and this is her story. It's got many twists, and turns. Enjoy amigos!**

Well I suppose this is where I start to tell you my story. It's a bit of a big story. Listen. I expect you'll be wanting to hear about something that is all magical and amazing, and probably romantic. Well I'm sorry. No it's not the sweet story about a little princess, and her heroic prince savior, and no it's not about a group of amazing people that save the world, and I'm sorry it's not about some dastardly villain who's out to create all things bad. To be honest, it's about my troublesome trials through the world, and how through some miraculous bizarre turn of events helped me meet an exceptionally nice little penguin. But I'll get to that part later.

Let me begin with the most important detail of my life. First off, I'm a California deer mouse, which means that I am a natural born thief. Yes. It's so true. Ever since I was a tiny little pink spot, it was in my DNA. I have a bit of a peachish orange yellow color to my fur at the top, and my belly, the underside of my limbs, and bottom of my neck is white. My tail is longer than my whole body, and a little tuft of fur is puffed at the end of it. I have a bit of fur at the top of my head that is sort of fluffy. A way to tell me apart from the others. Anyway back to my story of theivery. When you live in a boarding house, you try to get what you can. Which brings me to the second thing you should know. Yes I lived in a boarding house . . . well, in it's walls anyway. What would be a boarding house to a human, is a neighborhood to us. Just look at a wall in a house, and compare it to the size of the chapstick in your pocket. I bet you could fit alot of chapsticks in that one wall. Now compare it to all the walls in your house. It's like a little town just for us. My town for me, was an old boarding house in California. My whole life began in that boarding house. My mother and my father were the leaders of the nest. We had, oh I don't know. About a thousand members of our nest. We usually kept to the attic, and basement to stay safe.

To make sure we didn't get lost in the walls was a big chore. That is where our thievery skill comes in handy. We didn't steal too much. We usually just stole things like pennies, buttons, wrappers, and things like that. It was just to mark our paths, and know where we were in the walls. I always hated theiving things from the boarders. The other members of my colony were so currupt that they would steal anything that wasn't nailed down. Then they would probably come back with hammers and take the nailed stuff too. The leaders of the colony which of course was my mother and father were the best theives of the entire nest, which is how they got the highest level of respect. Now there is a diference between my parents and me. My twelve brothers were better thieves than I was. To put it in plainly, they were better at theiving, socializing, stealing and getting away with it than I was. I on the other hand, was not so much. I was more of a harvester so to speak. I stole things which were more . . . ownerless. Since the boarding house was in a rural area, there was alot of things that you could get on the outside of the house.

Even though I was not the stealing type, my parents were always trying to teach me how to have sticky fingers. They would try to make sure that I would take over the colony after them. That was not my idea of glamourous. They expected their only daughter to be in charge of over a thousand thieves. I did not want to be the leader of theiving mice. I would like to remind you, as you're reading this that I have TWELVE BROTHERS! They have stolen more things in a hour, than I could in a week. They would make much better leaders. Still being their one and only little princess, they insisted that they give me the biggest gift of all. The family heir to the throne. Or in this case, a big giant room at the top of the boarding house. I really didn't have a liking to the boarding house at all. I always dreamed of being in a place where there were no traps. A place that you didn't have to steal from. A place that was simply easier to cope with.

So let me begin with the first day I decided enough was enough.

I sat in my little matchbox bed running my left paw against the rough scratchy part on one side, and picking at the cotton that filled it with my right. Things were pretty quiet. For now, my home was a little corner spot in a teenage girls bedroom wall. My fourth wall was a piece of black cloth that opened and closed in a corner. The light that came from my room was from the teenage girls lava lamp. I got the light since the walls were fairly thin, and it could glow through the cracks in the wood. It was always giving a purplish glow. And adding to the fact that we were nocturnal, our vision adjusted quite well. I learned a little bit about her. Her name was Dejuhnay, and her father was a cook in a hotel. My favorite thing was when her friends visited the boarding house. She has seen me a few times and she never tried to catch me.

When I looked through the crack, I glanced at the neon glowing clock on the wall. It said it was seven thirty. Dinner was going to be soon. My six older brothers were in charge of getting the food from the boarding house kitchen, while my six younger brothers were gathering the colony. When your parents were the leaders the clan you were given special jobs. My job, being the middle child was taking over the clan. I sat there with my pet termite. As I pet him, I heard him purring softly. I named him Spunky. He was my pet termite that I saved from a cat on the streets. Suddenly somebody burst through my room totally unannounced, and not caring to knock "Laylah! Come quickly! One of your brothers is stuck in a trap! He along with four other mice. Hurry! We must make hast before the cat finds them." I rolled my eyes and nodded. Quickly I grabbed my baby blue scrap fabric, and tied it around my tail. It's what I always used when going outside the walls, and freeing my brothers, or anybody for that matter. I called it a lucky scarf.

We all took the short way. I got to the closest hole in the wall, and exited the sanctuary of my family's comfort. The closest hole, went to an elderly couple's room. For a human, two flights of stairs didn't seem like a long way down, but for a mouse, it was murder. Still being a deer mouse, it was a bit easier, since we were known for our athleticism amung rodents. I got down to the floor, by climbing down the recliner. I had to be quick so the cat didn't spot my brothers or the rest. If the cat saw them we were in big trouble. Unlike some cats, when our house cat saw us in a trap, we were as good as meals. Still, we were yet to be caught at all. We were a good thriving colony. When I reached the floor, I jumped in a hole in the wooden floor that led to the space between the floor of the above room and the cieling of the next floor. I took a spider web sting, and slid downwards.

The next room was a little boy that had been living here for two years with his mother. I climbed from the cieling to one of the tall poles on the corner of his bed. I landed on a soft matress, and leapt over to his desk. His ruler was sticking over the end like a diving board. Jumping off of I landed on a cushiony pillow, and his mother's couch. Finally I managed to get to the last floor hole. It led straight to the stair case railing. The rest of the rescue team was right behind me. We slid down the staircase, and landed on a little end table. earching in the drawer, I found enough handkerchiefs for all of us. We used them as parachutes, and floated down. One room away. We all made the dash to the kitchen before the cat could nab us.

When I got down there, I saw my older brother along with four other mice. My other eleven brothers were freaking out. I walked out there along with a few rescue mice. I was part of a rescue squad that freed mice from traps. My older brother, and the four others were in a cage that was really hard to open, if you didn't know how to open it properly. My brothers walked up to me, and started acting hysterical.

"What took you so long laylah?"

"Jeremy's stuck in there!"

"Do you know how freaked out we were?"

"Jeez I swear. Sometimes I have trouble believing we're even related."

"How are you going to be ruler of this colony if you let this type of stuff happen?"

Ignoring the annoying insults of my older half of brothers, I took a deep breath, and got low so I could lift the entrance door. A few others joined in hoisting it up. We were crouching til we found the entrance. The rest of the group got on the lever that was used to open it up by the humans. Their weight on the lever made it easier to hold up. Finally in one grunt we all pushed up, and the five mice scurried out. In the midst of things, I was never upset. I was grateful the owners of the house used such safe humane traps. I would be devasted if they used snap traps. As they exited the traps, everyone applauded the rescue team for it's victorious efferts.

"Yay! Great job team." I smiled. "Now let's get out of here, and head back to the walls." They all agreed with me, and we started to walk back, but we didn't take but two steps, when eveyone looked behind me. The mice were frozen looking, and I didn't know why. Suddenly I saw a long shadow casted over all of us. I looked behind myself. Mincy towered over me smiling, as her whiskers twitched slightly. I felt my heart race. Her white fur was fluffed, and poofy. She was interested in chasing one mouse, and that was me. In a flash of syncronization, we all scurried in different directions. The trapped mice had grabbed their food for the colony, and just as suspected, Mincy ran after me. Mincy was a Persian high pedigree cat. He blue eyes glimmered as they focused on me. I was not as fast as she was sneaky. I was running throughout the house. The closest mouse hole was not too far. I was gunna make it!

Suddenly I felt a heavy cat paw on my tail. All of a sudden, I could no longer run. Mincy had me by the tail. That doesn't mean I didn't try. Slowly she lifted me up, as I looked down. The carpet of the living room, getting further and further away. She spun me around, and looked into my black eyes. "Hmm. I should have expected you to be in the kitchen. Spending all this time looking for you in the bathroom? Must be losing my touch." I snarled as I hung in her grasp.

I rolled my eyes. "You know. I never thought of you as the kind to lie. You were waiting for me. You just love catching your prey when they least expect. Even I wouldn't have thought you woud stoop so low as to wait till I was saving my brother." I said. Personally she has caught me enough times, and always manages to loose me. "Well, you think you're going to be able to keep me this time, or do you think Gabrielle will stop you?"

She scoffed. "Oh, please. Gabrielle only pretends to love you. In reality, he really loves me. Trust me, if he saw you trying to escape this house, he would let me kill you like that. Your love for him is just a simple teenage crush. He loves me, and I love him."

"You wouldn't know love if it kicked you in the face." I swung by my tail, turning around, to see Gabrielle coming into the room. His collar made a little ringing sound, from his tags. Gabrielle was the Sheltie Collie that lived in the boarding house, and was the only dog it had. He has always protected me, from Mincy, and never really liked cats to begin with. Gabrielle has always had a very special relationship with me. Gabrielle didn't really get that much pamperment from the house, and was always known for his still, he always kept his long coat nicely brushed, and clean. Ironically enough, Gabrielle belonged to Dejuhnay's pet dog. His coat was red and white. It wasn't mixed up, but seperated into red and white areas. his blue eyes rested on me, and he growled at Mincy.

"Ah, Gabrielle. I see you have made it. I caught this little rodent trying to eat our food. She was getting into the shelves." She said holding her paw up to show me hanging pathetically.

This made me angry. "That's not true. I was only letting out my brother from a trap. You have to believe me."

He looked down smiling at me. "I believe you, Laylah. Mincy you should know better than to try to pull the wall over my eyes. It's not like you don't eat enough, anyway." He said. "Now come on. You know the rules. Drop her." As soon as he started growling again, Mincy put me down, and like clockwork, I ran to the closest hole, and ran back to the colony.


	2. Running off

**I am surprised that this story got not one but two reviews already. I wanted to say thank you to those two that were sweet enough to leave it for me. This chapter focuses alot on the deer mice world. It shows a bit of their interactions within the walls, what they eat in order to survive, and it especially focuses on Laylah's family, and the power it has over the clan. We get to hear alot about her brothers, (The ones that are her blood brothers of course. She gets many brothers throughout this story. Brothers at heart anyway) You get to see a little of the older brothers, and the little brothers. Her eldest brother, and her youngest brother are the main brothers that are focused on. William and Derrek are sort of like her concious on this one. One wants her to stay, while the other insists that she follw her dreams.**

I was in the grand meeting room, wall area. It was a big spot for all the thousands of mice to gather without trouble. I saw a big mouse holding three babies in her hands. My brothers and I were sitting at the master table. Everybody was enjoying the latest steal. I got a pretty good piece since I saved the retreaval team. Being the middle child of thirteen, I was always the one to help my six younger brothers, and get bullied and tormented by my six elder brothers. I was sitting next to my mom, and the youngest brother of the family, Derek. I was at the end of the table, while the family got the sides. Slowly I played with my food with one hand holding my face up with the other. I huffed quietly, and then laid my head down on my folded hands.

Suddenly I felt a tap on my leg. Spunky my termite was sitting up, hungrily looking up a me. I plucked a pice of the orange I was eating off, and gave it to spunky. Spunky weaved throughout the legs under the table. Watching him I grinned at his happy swagger. It would be a real pain for him missing me, when I decided to leave. I saw him head back down the walls, probably heading back to my area of the house. We might be small but we know the house inside and out. That went for our pets as well. Suddenly I heard my mom call me. "Laylah?"

I swiftly raised my head, but it stopped short when I bumped my head on the bottom of the table. Ow! I pulled my head up from the table, and rubbed the spot it hit. Everybody stared at me. Are you feeding Spunky scraps again? I shook my head no. I doubt mom believed me. My littlest brother held up a pice of egg. The egg was spoiled and a bit hard, as eggs usually do. He was asking to switch with something of mine. I handed him some cheese. While we ate, I figured that now would be a great time for me to put my my idea right on the table.

My father was gnawing on a piece of old licorish. The redness was getting brighter the further he stretched the food. When he clenched it with his teeth, he yanked hard, and it snapped. My mother was tasting a piece of pretzel. The crunch was not there as it was slightly stale. When I stared down at me orange, I had noticed I picked all the pieces of fiber off, since I was so nervous about telling the group. I slowly coughed, and it grabbed everybody's attention. Every furry face, and whisker turned to me. My brothers, and parents were all ears. "Umm excuse me, everyone. I would like to make an announcement." Some of my brothers stopped eating on the spot. A few others were still chowing down, but all of them payed attention to me nonetheless. Well there was no turning back now. I had to tell them, and I had to tell them now. "I know mother and father were planning on having me take over the family business. I have thought long and hard over these matters." I could feel my blood pressure rising slightly. My face getting warm. "So with a heavy heart, I have decided that . . . that . . ." My confession was cut short when my father looked at me happily. "That . . . that . . . that I move out of the boarding house."

If you've ever sat in a chair, and leaned back on the legs, to where you almost fall, but just at the last second you catch yourself, well that's what the moment felt like for me. I don't think there were any two responses that were the same among my brothers, and parents. Some sat there quietly. Some gave me a nice smile. others were completely loosing it. I could only focuse on so many responses. My eldest brother William, smiled to me warmly. He knew how much it meant apparently. My ninth brother Freddy looked at me as if I was nuts. My oldest younger brother, looked down, in a dissappointed stare, as if it broke his heart. My third youngest brother Jerimia jumped on the chair as if it were the best hing to ever happen to him. Derek stared up at me as if he didn't understand. I looked at my mother next. Her face was one of surprise. It wasn't too surprised. It was sort of a raised eyebrow expresion, mixed with one that said she didn't see it coming. My father's was for a moment unreadable. I never saw somebody's face turn so red, in such a short time. You could practically hear the whistle come from him ears. "What are you talking about, Laylah?"

"Exactly what I said." I pulled up to them all. ""Why must you make all my decisions? I think I should be able to make a decision on my own. I want to move out, and see other worlds. I could live somewhere nobody's ever lived. Imagine a house all to myself."

My father boomed with his voice so loud all the colony could hear. "WANT TO MOVE OUT!" I heard every head turn. Embarrasement was all over my face.

My mother wasn't so hesitant. She was quite proud of my decision. "Well, dear, if that is what you want. I see no bother in letting you go. After all every colony starts somewhere." I knew I could count on my loving mother.

William stood up, and tried to back me up. "Mother, father. Let me talk to Laylah. I think it would help. Maybe we can work things out." Thank heavens. He could get me out of this rut. He loked at me, and jerked his head off to the side. While every mouse was watching, I walked with my brother. I knew I could be myself around him. He walked me aroundthe grand hall. Each mouse quickly returned to minding their own business. "Alright, Laylah. I understand that you want to leave the boarding house, and I support that. I just have one question to raise. Why do you want to leave?" I knew he would ask that.

"Well, look around you William. We've been living here, forever. Longer than Mincy, and Gabrielle combined. Don't you think there is a better place out there? One that doesn't have to resort to theivery?" I asked smiling.

A loud huff escaped William's throat. "Laylah. I support your choice, but I need to ask these questions, so dad will think I tried to change your mind. Secondly look at all your friends, and take a look. I see a couple of boy mice staring at you right now." I glanced to the direction he pointed. There in a group were a bunch of cocky looking guys. They all looked at me. Each one looked more like a jerk than the last. I couldn't believe that William thought they were cute to me. One of them waved, while another raised his head slightly, when another made a kissing gesture.

A slapped my forehead in grief. "Oh, please. They don't care about me. They just want the throne of the colony that comes with me. Trust me. If I were an average mouse, they wouldn't give a hoot about me. Guys in this colony only think about one thing, and one thing alone, and thats money, or in this case the power that comes with eccepting my paw. As for friends. Don't even try. I never had any real friends, other than you guys. All twelve of you are the only ones that actually like me for who I am. Whenever I invite the other mice, they're always, "Oh, Laylah, when do I get to see your stuff? Oh, Laylah, when can I have nice little foods? Oh, Laylah, can I sit at the master table?" I doubt any of them can even remember my favorite food or color." I slumpt.

William nodded. "I understand. Well, I guess now dad won't talk to me about talking with you. So if you want I'll take care of Spunky. You know, Spunky is going to miss you so much. You know how pets can get. So do you plan on packing, or traveling lightly."

"I hope to travel lightly. If I ecape here, then I know there will be dangers in the world. The last thing I need is something to slow me down, or have me get robbed. To be perfectly honest, this is all I really want to take." I flicked my tail infront of me, and pointed to my lucky scarf that was still tied to my tail.

A loud sigh escaped his throat. "I guess that mom and dad will put me in charge of this place which I guess is okay." A large sigh was mixed with a faint voice of tears. "I sure am gunna miss you kiddo." William smiled, and hugging me tightly.


	3. Please don't leave

**My third chapter is now up. Huzzah! I will post more next time. This chapter shows a few small hints of what the leaders of the colony take care of. You will see what Laylah's parents are in charge of, you will see what a deer mouse's main theiving tool is, and you will see what the dangers of the outside world hold for a deer mouse. I am aware it's taking a while for her to leave. I assure you. It will come soon. I will most likely have her escape next chapter. The colony's royal family has been confusing as one of my friends have said, so here is a brief outlook on the royal family.**

**The royal family of the Deer mice, in the Palm tree arms boarding house**

**mother . . . Abbigale**

**father . . . Eric**

**children in birth order**

**1 . . . William**  
**2 . . . Jeremy**  
**3 . . . Benny**  
**4 . . . Jefferson**  
**5 . . . Percy**  
**6 . . . Ethan**  
**7 . . . Laylah**  
**8 . . . Benjamin**  
**9 . . . Freddy**  
**10 . . . Theodore**  
**11 . . . Jerimiah**  
**12 . . . Cooper**  
**13 . . . Derrek**

**Palm tree arms boarding house pets**

**Sheltie . . . Gabrielle**

**Persian cat . . . Mincy**

I sat in my room, looking through my stuff, seeing if there was anything I needed. I noticed all I needed was really my lucky scarf. I didn't really want anything else other than that. When I had it on, it was like my gaurdian angel was watching over me. Also it gave me confidence. I practically felt nude without it. When I was about to leave my lava lamp lit room, to say goodbye to the clan, I looked at the pictures that lined my room. My room was large enough to put photographs up. I looked at all the pictures reminiscing when they were taken. One was for the largest mouse in the clan. He was much larger than everyone else. While we were the size of a chapstick stick, he was the size of a hot dog. Most believe Goliath, which was his name, had a bit of rat blood in him. He probably was one fourth rat. Anyway the picture was of me and some other girl mice. He was lifting us up like we were feathers. He really was the superman of the clan.

Another was a picture of a few of the cocky mice that were offering me some fresh vegetables that they caught themselves. One held cucumber slices piled up, while another held choppings of onion. They looked like they were conceeded, while my picture was one of my eyes rolling. I giggled at it, then looked at the next picture. It was one where my whole family was in the picture. My parents, and all thirteen of the siblings were standing on a giant fresh pecan pie. Underneath it said that it was the biggest feast we ever had. The pecan feast of two thousand four. I had to admit that day was a big victory. It was when we all worked together to get an extra large pie from the kitchen. It fed the colony for ten days. Another one was a picture of the colony all playing a prank on Mincy. She had peanut butter all over her body. That was a victrious day. The last one I stared at was rather beautiful. It was a picture of me and Gabrielle. Gabrielle was sitting the way dogs usuallly do, smiling at the camera. He was sitting in the kitchen as I sat on his shoulder. I had stared at it as it showed us so happy together.

That's when I suddenly felt my heart sink. Gabrielle loved me very much. I loved him too. I know he was a sheltie, and I was a deer mouse, but I had never loved anybody like I loved him. When I would leave, I knew I would miss him without a doubt. He loved me very much. Poor Gabrielle in this big house all alone. He always said I was the greatest miracle he knew. Ever since I was born I knew Gabrielle. He was just a puppy when I first met him. Mincy was just a kitten. We were all babies at the time. We had all grown up in the house together, and knew eachother very well. Whenever Gabrielle and I had socialized, it was always in secret. I never told my family about him and me. if it was known that the leaders only daughter had fallen in love with a dog, they would shun me for life. I could never tell anybody. I couldn't tell my mother, or my father. I couldn't tell Derrek. I couldn't even gain enough strength to tell William.

Just then, out of nowhere, I heard a little young voice. "Laylay?" I turned and saw Derrek. He looked at me with a straight face. I smiled, and pushed my favorite penny to the side so he could sit down.

"Oh, hey, buddy. Come on in." He sat next me on the matchbox bed. Spunky jumped up into his arms, and laid in his lap.

He stared up at me, and I noticed that he had something on his mind. "Laylay. Why do you want to go away? Don't you love us anymore?"

I was shocked he would think such things. "Why, of course I love you, Derrek. It's just that I want to leave the house. Go out and see the world. You know. I was thinking that maybe getting a new house wouldn't be that bad."

He raised an eyebrow not quite understanding my reasons. I couldn't tell him that Mincy was out to kill me. He would totally frwak out, and tell mom and dad, and they would freak out, and the last thing this clan needed was the alpha male and alpha female griving over something that has been happening for years. I decided to keep it on the down low. I have handled my Mincy problems over the years, and i could handle them now, without them knowing. "Well, what's wrong with this house out here?"

A big huff escaped my lips. "Well, nothing. It's just I that I don't want to be thief. You understand right?" I asked

He nodded once. "Okay. You won't be coming back, will you?" I shook my head. Porbably not. I mean. The world is big when you're a deer mouse. When you live in the country houses a far apart from each other. The next house was a vast distance away for a deer mouse such as me. I was probably going to go a farther distance than that anyway. He looked down. "I understand. Well, while you go, at least take this." He handed me a paper clip. It was his favorite. It had a swirley rainbow color on it. Sometimes he would use it to get out of locked boxes, or other places that held valueables.

I looked at him surprised. This was his favorite paper clip. "You're favorite paper clip? But Derrek. You're my youngest brother! Surely you can't give me this. you got this from the house yourself." When I looked at it, I saw that it looked just as strong as it did, when he first found it.

He shook his head no, signaling that he wanted me to have it. "Please, Laylay. Take it for me. If you're going into the real world, I know you'll need it more than I do."

I smiled to him, knowing he cared. What a sweet little brother. Paper clips were our best tool. I never really used one, since I wasn't always trying to steal things. I was gathering food from outside, like the harvester I was. Derrek left the room, and I grabbed a polka dot cloth, and put it inside.

The next day I went to my father, to speak to him. His and my mother's room was near the expensive walls, close by. They had the best room in the house, which they were planning on giving me when I took over. The rooms that were next to best were for previous leaders, a.k.a. my grandparents. Anyone that had once taken the throne, got the next best rooms, and we had many before us. I walked into my parents room, briefly taking in the size. I remember when I was little I would run throughout the house and whizz past through other peoples rooms, to get to the royal bedroom. If ever I had a bad dream, I would just sleep in their room, but it had been years since I was in it. I looked in to see my father sitting at a large harmonica box. He looked upset, either that or stressed out. I went with the second guess, when I saw what he was staring at. It was a large blueprint diagram of the boarding house. He was circling certain areas of the house that he knew were places where the boarders would bring the food to their rooms.

My mother who was queen of our house was cleaning her whiskers off. She saw me come in, and I waved. I scurried over to my father. He glanced up for a brief moment, and then returned back to his work. He never really did ever give me a hug in my life. That was more of mom's job. The only thing he did ever do was yell at me for not getting enough food out of the pantry, and to say hey to me. I knew he would be the last person I would miss. He didn't want me to leave, not because he cared, but because he would dare not burden one of his precious sons with the tribe. As far as he knew I was just some little brat he had with the rest of his glorious sons.

"Uhhh, . . . hi dad." He said nothing. Apparently he was still pretty mad about the thing last night. "Uhh, I was looking through a few brouchures down stairs the other night, and . . . some of the brochures that a few of the borders have been collecting, and I heard that down in Beverly Hills." He stopped writing things down on his blueprints and looked straight ahead of himself. "Well, Beverly Hills has alot of big houses, mansions even. Some of them are supposed to be so big that you could fit ten times our clan in the houses, and I thought I could probably get a place down there."

He looked up at me, staring at me in a way that told me he didn't ever want to hear the idea of me leaving ever again. Then he sighed, and then his face looked heartbroken, "Why . . . why . . . " His head thudded down to the harmonica box, and he broke down. "Why do you want to leave this clan?" He started bawling with his face buried in the blueprints. He was obviously tormented with the idea that I hated it here. I didn't hate it here. I just wanted to see what else was out there.

Getting aggrivated but not loosing my temper, I tried to make him see things my way. "I'm not leaving the clan, because I hate it." I said while he was sobbing into his fits. "Don't you want me to go out there and do something with my life?" I said raising my eyebrow.

"Yes. I do!" He whined as he raised his head. "I want you to actually fnd a deer mouse that you love. I want you to get married to somebody in this clan, and have a litter of your own. I can't wait forever to be a grandfather, and your older brothers aren't interested in marriage yet. Can you at least take the thrown to this house?" I answered that by pinchng the bridge of my nose. Why did he have to be such a stubborn rodent. "I give up!" He shouted. He ran out of the room, and headed somewhere in the house, probably the garage or parlor of the boarding house. It wasn't fair. Why did I have to be the one girl of the family? Why did i have to inherit the clan? Why did my father have to hate me? Feeling worse than before, I sat in the spot he was and slumpt over the blueprint, crying my eyes out.

When my mother heard my sniffling, she walked over to me. Knowing the clan and their individual personalities, was my mother's strong point. She could tell when something was not right. She could practically feel it with with her spidey senses. Her children were her best read subects. "Laylah, Laylah, come on Laylah." I pulled my head up, turning to the side, so she couldn't see me cry. "I understand what you want. You have a very strong and independant spirit. Uh huh? You want to see the world. You want to learn about the world. I know how you feel. I did the exact same thing at your age."

Not knowing that she did anything the same way I did, I stared at her through the glittering tears of my eyes. "Really you did? I thought you were born here in the house." She shook her head.

"Nope. not even a small chance. i came from a nearby farm. I was living under hay with my clan of three hundred and fifty. When I told my parents I wanted to leave, they were just as stubborn as your papa was. But I left anyway. I new that it was not my job to make them happy about my decision, but to make me happy with my decision. I left the farm and traveled here, and your father's parents were so welcoming to me they invited me with open arms." I never knew she wasn't local to the house. "Do not worry. He just knew that you would turn out having my side of the family. I was an heiress just like you, and did inherit a clan. Just not my own. I left the gathering clan, and joined a theiving clan. I liked adventure, and so do you. Who knows. You might even inherit your own clan." I doubted that. I didn't think I would ever find a deer mouse for me. Still I wouldn't tell her that. "I will talk to him for you."

My lower lip was quivering. On the brink of crying a fresh coat of tears, I hugged my mother. "Thank you mommy."

At noon my parents were discussing my leave. The whole colony knew, and were anxious to see what would happen to the the daughter of the leaders. My twelve brothers and I were sitting outside of the discussion room. Our ears all up against the wall listening to the virdict. I was lucky enough to get a peek through a crack in the wood. My termite, Spunky was on his hind legs, his ear against the the wall as well. This is what I saw through the crack.

I saw my mother pacing back and forth around an old broken doll head. "What is wrong with Laylah leaving the house, and finding her own house? She might even start a better clan than our own." My brothers snickered as if I couldn't do it. Benny was laughing the hardest so I gave him a knuckle sandwhich. Older brothers were sometimes so stubborn.

He sat down on an old soda bottlle cap and made an upset face. "She is the runt of the litter." It was true my brothers were much larger than I was. Some raised an eyebrow and nodded. "She is tiny even for a deer mouse. The outside world is a big place. there are criminals in California. Who knows who would try to take advantage of a harmless little deer mouse such a her. I hear that sewer rats have been prowling the streets of California looking for female mice." The thought of that made me shiver. My fourth oldest brother Jefferson laid a comforting hand on my shoulder which helped me calm down.

"What are you saying?" My mother asked not believing his words. "Are you saying she'll be raped in the city?"

My father was still trying to make a point of the dangerous world he believed was out to get mice. "Well, no. But a sewer rat will say. "Uhh, will you help me find my lost termite, please." And she'll do it!" He said without regards to my intelligence.

"She won't get involved with criminals. She knows not to talk to a weasel or a sewer rat. She especially knows not to follow them. She will not even get involved with theft, so you know she will not be killed." My mother got close to his face. "Our Laylah is alot smarter than you make her out to be." My mother snarled. My brothers were getting more intrugued by the second.

That's when I saw my father stand up from the soda bottle cap. "Well, if she is so much smarter than you think, then why are we letting her out in the real world? Why are we letting her risk her life? She is already active. What does she need more of the world to see. Why can;t she stay in the house? Keep her in her place? She's smart enough for a girl."

At this my mother finally snapped. "What do you mean? Do you think that it's wrong educating women? Do you think that men are smarter? You think you're smarter than me?" Father started getting flusttered, not exctly knowing how to get out of this rut. "Well, let's see. I run the deer mouse kingdom. I steal food. I theif beds for my colony to sleep in. I give the deer mice clan clean water for them to bathe in. I raise thirteen children, and I teach thiefery skills to every infant mouse in the colony. It's seems I have more authority in one paw than you have in your entire body. I might have married into this clan, but I saved it from the sorry state it was in. So having as much power as I do, I decree that Laylah can leave, and that is final!" Things went silent for a while.

All thirteen of us were on the simply flabbergasted. My brothers and I were speechless. We saw our mother exit the room. As she looked down at us, she had a prideful look on her face. We simply stared at her in amazement. She wasn't even surprised that we all had our ears to the wall. We had not even moved from our little spots of listening spots. She smiled at her proud acheivements, and walked away. We all slowly stared at eachother, and smiled. I was going to be able to go to Beverly Hills.


	4. Goodbye everyone

That night at sunset I was downstairs, in the hole nearest the kitchen. To be sure that Mincy wasn't waiting for me, I took a quick survey inside the hole, staring at the kitchen carefully. So far I only saw Gabrielle. He was laying on the floor, next to the fridge. I slowly took my bandana off my tail, and put it in my left hand. I stuck my hand out the hole, and flailed my bandana around, to make sure that the coast was clear. So far nothing attacked. Sticking the side of my face out, I could see she was gone. Splendid. I ran over to him, and half way there, sticking out the side of the second kitchen wall hole was a mouse trap. A snap trap to be more precise. Sitting on top was a big piece of string cheese. Sheesh humans and their stupid stereotypes. Still at night cheese was a nice snack. Quickly running over to a dust pile, I looked through, and found a piece of a twig. It was considerably long, and sturdy. I ran over to the trap, and struck the pressure plate. In the blink of eye, the string of cheese went flying. Running, while keeping it in sight, I jumped up to grab it. Out of the parlour there were human footsteps coming my way. I needed a place to hide, and fast.

"I heard the mousetrap go off. Did you guys hear it?" The humans came in. There were about three of them. All of them older, and much more wiser than your average human.

"Well, there's no mouse. It must have gone off on it's own." One of them said.

"No. I doubt that. See? The cheese is gone! I bet it was that runt again. The little pest. She has always known how to get the food out of mouse traps. She's like Houdini with a tail." A third one said. "Ehh, I guess she'll just always outwit us." The men left, and walked back to the parlour.

Gabrielle watched them leave the room, his head slowly turning watching their every move. He then listened for them to sit down on the parlour sofe. "Okay, they're back in there. The coast is clear." I lifted up his long furry bushy tail, and scurried out. With the string cheese in hand, Gabrielle held his tail down, and let me scale up to his head.

"Hey, Gabrielle. I was hoping I could get a chance to met you today." I smiled down to him. He trotted through the kitchen, and near the staircase.

"So, what is going on Laylah? I know you like to see me, but today, you seem to be wanting to tell me something important."

I knew it would break his heart. "Well." I was stalling, and hesitating. The words were jumbled together. They couldn't come out. "Here's the thing. I have been thinking of leaving the boarding house." I said a bit sadly. He looked up at me, as I ran down to his nose, so he could see me. This was like murder, saying the words he didn't want to hear. "The thing is, Mincy is starting to get more agile, Gabrielle. Eventually she could kill me. Not only that, but if we're found out, my family's reputation is in the toilet."

He looked at me, as he lowered his head. He wanted me to jump down, so I could see him more clearly. "So, it's true. You really Are moving away. I heard some of the mice talking it over, but I thought they could be talking about somebody else." His head hung low, and sad. "I had hoped that . . . " I knew he would take this awfully hard. He didn't finish his sentence. He laid down on his tummy, and laid his head on the ground. His eyes looked at me, and his ears perked up, upset.

A loud huff escaped my throat. "Gabrielle." I said grabbing his nose and hugging tight. "I am so sorry. I'll miss you alot. Probably more than anybody else." He looked up at me.

He stared at me his heart looking like it had been shattered to pieces. "I'll run away with you." he said bravely.

Immediately I said what I hated to say. "No, Gabrielle. You can't. You are the boarding house's pet dog. You cannot run away with me. The resdients love you. Plus, with me gone, the other mice will be in alot of trouble. Mincy and the traps will be even more bothersome. They'll need your protection. They need you, Gabrielle . . . and you need them." Finally understanding he nodded to me, knowing that he had to let me go.

He grabbed my tail in his teeth, and walked back into the kitchen as to take me home. When he put me down, we talked some more. "Alright. I will stay here, but you must be carefull of the outside world. There are cats, and rats that will no doubt try to harm you. I have seen this myself. They are very frightening, and troublesome. Especially for runt mice like you" It was true. Ever since I was a baby, they knew I was a runt. They thought I would not make it through the first month. "Watch out for swindlers. They will try to take all that you have. Most of them are trng to steal from uneducated mice right now. Do not be fool. Make safe bargains. Only steal if you have to, and are athe end of the line." I didn't need to worry about that. Mother gave me sixty gold pieces, for the city. "Bakersfield is most likely the safest place for mice right now. I would suggest taking that place for mansions. There will be an easy access to Bakersfield through Los Angeles." It was true. Los Angeles was a crossroad popular for getting to Bakersfield. The truth was that the population for thieves and rats, and weasels was high in Los Angeles. It didn't seem high populated above the city, but underneath in the sewers, they took over, hiding in alleyways, and abandoned lots.

Putting the last of the string cheese in my mouth, I assured him my safety. "I can cut across cities you know." I smiled.

With a heavy heart Gabrielle smiled to me, knowig that even though I was small, he could trust me. Lowering his head, he nuzzled his snout to my face. He would miss me so much. "Oh, Laylah. Deer mice truely are amazing creatures. You can learn all that there is to know about them in a month, and yet after three years, they can still surprise you." When I saw that the humans were coming back into the room, I ran back into the walls.

That night, the whole clan held a party for me, and my leave from the boarding. We had a grand time Big thick long cloth banners and streamers of multiple colors were held everywhere. We had confetti, and food for everyone. We got the stored food out, for the party. All the mice were having fun. Most of the party was centered on games, and dances. Mingling of mice, and male mice, attempting to speak to their potential mates. All were haing fun. Then again, we as the species we were always trying to find reason to celebrate and party. I was watching the blindfold dance on the other side of the grand hall. It was a dance where the females were given masks, and the men were blindfolded. It was a traditional dance, that a mouse out of the clan would need practice in performing.

My mother and father walked over to me in the middle of the party. My father held a small box, while my mother held a rolled up piece of paper. William was right behind them, along with rest of my twelve brothers. Whatever they were, I was sure would help me with my travel. My father walked to me, and handed me the box. "What's this?" I asked smiling at the box, then at him.

He returned the grin, and huffed loudly. "Well, just something that I suspect will help you if you're ever in troule out there." He said gesturing to the box. I knew it would be something that was a weapon. I opened the box, and it was a thumb tack. The smooth metal was shiny, and I could se my reflection in it. The handle was crystal clear plastic. Very elegant, and deadly when properly wielded.

I had never been entrusted with such a weapon. My father never let me wield such a tool. To say that this was a real weapon, that was presented to me, and that my father actually gave me a gift was quite an honor to me. It told me that he understood that I was growing up. I dare say it was an act of love. "Wow, dad. This is a really astounding gift. I have never been given a real weapon before. Thank you, dad." Something in my head must have been switched to another spot, because I did something I had never done before. I gave him a hug. When I put my arms around him, he gasped for a moment. I really didn't care. If I didn't hug him now, then I would never get to hug him. A moment I would reget for the rest of my life. I slowly felt his hands wrap around me.

My mother held out the rolled up piece of paper. When I grabbed it, I unfurled it. The paper was actually a map. A map of all of California. Each and every detailed spot was accounted for. Every creek and railroad track. She had enough kindness in her to trace with a pencil the safest route to Bakersfield. She always knew how to help.

My brothers were behind them holding a wrapped gift, that was wierd shaped. William and Derek stood infront of them all. William was the first to speak. "Laylah. We know how costly the city of Los Angeles is. If you are out there, than you will be spending alot of money on things such as directions, food, and especially transfers on buses, and trains, and things like that, so if ever you have trouble. This will be your back up finance." They handed me the handheld gift it was circular, and shaped like a ring. When I opened it up, it turned out that it _was_ a ring. A big one actually. I wove it through the hole on my right ear. My brothers nodded, in agreement, stating that it suited me. I could hardly believe that i was actually going out to the world, to find a place to all my own.


	5. The standoff

The neon glowing clock in Dejuhnay's room showed that the time was now midnight. By now, the colony was fast asleep. While they slumbered being worn out by the party, I was busy packing. I packed my tack, my map, my sixty gold coins, an old brush, and a picture of my family. The whole thing was folded into my old green bed sheet. The green sheet filled with my valuables was tied off on a stick so it could be easily carried around. The way it was folded, and tied, reminded me of the old dirty hobos on those old cartoons. That didn't matter though, because now wasn't the time to think about cartoons. I had to leave the house now, while it was still dark. Midnight was the perfect time to leave. Most of the borderd would be slumbering. Mincy being the cat she was surely wouldn't be up at midnight. Wasn't sleeping what they usually did anyway?

Suddenly all of my brothers came through the covering of my room. "Laylah we're ready to go." Percy nodded. I nodded back. Grabbing my stuff, we ran down to the kitchen the rout we usually took.

On the way there, I asked them of what was going on. "So, is the coast clear for me to get out through the dog door?" I was planning on sneaking out of the kitchen, through the dog door, out the back garden, and through the wooden fence to get to freedom.

Ethan gauranteed it. "Yep. We got Derrek, Theodore, and Benjamin as lookouts. They have been watching, and so far we haven't got any problems." That made me feel better. We ran through the holes and crevices. We finally reached the hole in the kitchen. When I got there, Benjamin and Theodore were staring out the hole acting like they were freaked out. What scared me was the fact that Derrek wasn't there. I knew something happened to him.

They ran up to me, and Benjamin started talking. "Oh, laylah. Thank heavens you came." Now I was seriously worried. What could they have done. "Mincy came through, looking for you. Derrek was out watching for humans, and Mincy grabbed him by the tail, and slammed him into the cabinets." I gasped in epic terror. Running past my two younger lookout brothers, I saw him. He was on hi side. His tail limp. I couldn't see his face. Just the back of his head, and his back. What startled me the most was the cut on his head. I could only guess it was from the impact. The tiny little smear of blood on the wood of the cabinet said enough to me. i wasn't sitting outside, but just the doorway of the hole. Sighting the blood scared me into a panic.

Theodore was just as eratic as Benjamin. "Mincy just knocked him out. He was knocked out really fast. We don't understand why Mincy won't eat him, but we couldn't leave his sight."

"Well, we can't just leave him out there." I ran like a maniac. We were very fast, and seeing my brother not moving made me even faster. Quickly checking his pulse, he was alive. Thank the lord. he had a few small scratches along his body, and a bit of bruising along his arms and hands. His face had no cuts, but he was not opening his eyes. I propped him up, so I could geting him seated upright. Tears were streaming on my face. My brother was hurt, and I hated that fact. Nobody should be allowed to hurt my brother like this. He was too innocent, and young. "Help." I called to my brothers. Help me guy, please. He's hurt." They were not coming my way. "HEEEEEEELLLLLLP!" I screeched. My screech was a sound I had never made before in my life. My eyes were stinging from the tears.

The group ran my way. All my brothers ran out to help me. William was the first to run out. I can understand they were frieghtened. They were not part of the rescue team like I was "Laylah. Pull him toward the hole." It was a long ways away. I doubted I could carry him that far. William looked down. "We need to find a way to get him to the walls." He said. I knew he was always the one that was naturally born to be a leader, which is why I always thought he would take over the colony.

Regardless of his vague sentance, I knew he was talking about a stretcher to carry him on, or something to pull him in the house. "Alright. You eleven go and find something to carry him inside. I'll stay here with him." I said. I could feel my lip quivering from the heartbreak I felt. He was my youngest brother, and very irreplacable. Some people think that if you loose a brother, that it's alright, because you have other brothers, but that was not the case. Each brother was special to me.

My brother Freddy looked at him with sheer terror on his face. "Is he dead?" He asked. His breathing was seriously uneven. He was just as worried for his life as I was. "Please tell me he isn't dead."

"No, Freddy, he isn't dead, I think he's only been knocked out. I can feel a pulse in him." I assured him sniffeling from my sobs.

William was not going to loose me along with Derrek. He knew that if I stayed out, I would most likely be killed. "Laylah. You have GOT to come with us, there is a very dangerous pet in this house! I doubt that Gabrielle would be able to stop her if she caught us first."

"I'm aware of that." I said trying to prop Derrek up in a way that would help him breath better.

"Laylah. It's only a matter of time before Mincy comes back, to finish the job! you know how insane she is!" William shouted wanting me to get inside.

"I said I'm aware." I sobbed looking at him the angriest I could. "Now, go, GO, hurry. I need you all to check the whole house. Anything to get him inside." They took off, looking for anything to help him get inside. I fully understood that he was concerned with my safety, but I would not leave the house without knowing that he was safe. I stayed by his side. His breathing slow, but at a steady pace. They had dissappeared in the walls, and I watched him the whole time.

Suddenly I heard a set of paws coming close. I prayed it wasn't Mincy. When I looked in the doorway, I saw somebody I had not expected. Gabrielle was coming right up to. "Laylah? What are you still doing here?" He looked over me, and saw Derrek on the floor. "Oh, man. What happened to Derrek? Is he alright?"

Glaring sharply, I couldn't believe he asked that. "Does he look alright? That mangey beast, Mincy got a hold of him." I sobbed. Gabrielle looked down shattered that my brother was hurt.

We stayed next to him for a while. The boys must have not found anything yet. We didn't exactly have stairs, and the weaving of tunnels was hard enough. We also had to climb alot, so there was no way to get Derrek back, without a proper thing to hold him in. I was frightened when I heard paw prints getting close really fast.

When I turned, I saw Mincy with an evil smirk on her face. Gabirelle got in between her and us. I dragged my brother a little bit further from her. She smirked, her fur a bit fluffier than ususal. "Awww! You shouldn't have, Gabrielle. Two helpings of deer mouse freshly tenderized . . . for me? Who says that midnight snacks are just a waste of time." She grinned up at Gabrielle acting sarcastically. We all froze as her claws came out.

Hopefully Gabrielle could talk her out of doing something crazy. I knew she hated our kind, but right now she was acting a little more bahoodies than usual. Gabrielle looked over at the hole. Where were my brothers? They should have come with a tarp, or sheet, or something to carry him in by now. Gabrielle was not going to let Mincy eat me or my brother. I knew he wouldn't. "Mincy. Laylah and her brothers, are taking the boy back into the wall. He needs help. You and me we can talk." Just then my brother came back to consciousness slowly. When he could focus his eyes, he saw Mincy, and clutched onto me in fright, his eyes getting big. "You know you don't want to do anything stupid right now, so let's just calm down."

"Can you walk?" I asked scared he was hurt. Weakly he shook his head no. I could understand he was weak fom the pain. I didn't want him to fall down, and give Mincy the chance to pounce him.

Mincy bared her fangs, and hissed the way cats did when they were angry. "It's too late to talk, Gabby. I'm the one that has the fangs, and claws. Aint nobody going nowhere. You want to get out of the house, you're going through me." Okay. I was not expecting that. Usually when Gabrielle talked to Mincy she was very calm, and she undoubtedly was jealous of my relationship with him. I thought she was practically puddy in his claws. Not this time though. I suppose Gabrielle stood Mincy up just one too many times. There was no way she was going to back down now.

Gabrielle gave her those puppy eyes. "Sweetheart, please. Don't do this to them." He said quietly whispering. "They're just innocent little mice."

"I aint your sweetheart, and I doubt that I ever was! As for these mice, they aren't innocent. They steal the humans blind." She hissed to him. "Now just give me a minute to think things over." I knew she wasn't totally going through with this. She was totally lost. "Alright. If I don't eat her, and her brother, you will give me a chance, and she'll leave and never come back, but if I do eat them she'll be gone, and I'll get my revenge."

I screamed angered by her statement. My reasonable thoughts flew out the window. "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT EATING US, YOU FILTHY MONGREL!"

She turned to me as if I was not being serious. I knew I should not have egged her on, the moment I did. Had I gotten time to think before I spoke, I would have held my tongue. "Ha. You sure picked the wrong time to call me a filthy mongrel, you miserable little rodent!"

"Yeah, Laylay. Don't do this." Derrek said looking up at me from his weakened state. "You should take a look at those claws. They could fillet us on the spot."

Gabrielle looked at me, and lowered his head. "Don't try to egg her on, Laylah. I got this." He said trying to keep me off of Mincy's mind as much as he could.

She turned to gabrielle sharply and was at the point of almost taking him out with her paw, when she attempted to swipe at his face. "YOU AINT GOT CRAP!" She shouted as she glared at him.

He held his ground, and got low, into a fighting position, as to let Mincy know hewasn't afraid to fight a girl, or hurt her. He was never fond of cats, and was certainly not fond of her. I stared as both of them held their stances. Mincy's back was arched, and she resembled a Halloween cat in order to make herself look bigger. Gabrielle spread all four paws, and his hair was stand on end. He was low to the ground. "Yes I do, Mincy. There's no way, you're going to eat the mice. This isn't you. You're much better than that. This is nowhere close to who you are." He said. The way he was positioned didn't look too promising to what I thought Mincy was seeing.

"Uhhh . . . Gabrielle. I'm looking at the conversation, and she doesn't really look like the type that is willing to calm down." I said raising an eyebrow. My outbursts might have been drawing attention to me. Still I was not going to loose Gabrielle's life to Mincy. If I had to daw her away from him, I would.

Dark blue menacing eyes shifted slowly from him to me. "Okay, runt. You need to close your mouth, if you are talking too large for your size." When she was turned towards me, I saw about six different colors in my perfierral vision. It was my brothers fur colors they came back with a flat large piece of cloth to carry him in.

Gabrielle moved closer. "MINCY, Mincy, look at me. LOOK AT ME MINCY!" She wimpered, and shot her glance to Gabrielle. His strong point was always finding ways to mellow down a conversation. "You loved me once. I know you did."

"I would have given everything for you." She started crying. "You wouldn't even give me the simplest of a kiss." I could tell she was hurt by rejection, but honestly. Who hasn't? There are just some things that aren't meant to be. Doesn't mean you have to go on a slaughter rampage. My brothers were watching with terror. They were aware that Mincy was focused on Gabrielle, but she could move her glance at any moment.

He stared at her. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly she got angry and hostile again. "Oh, you're sorry? Whatever happened to I don't want to have to leave Laylah for a cat? It's way to late for apoligies." She swiped at him, and hit his shoulder with force. It didn't seem to break skin, but I knew it hurt him. I wanted to kill her right then and there. When I looked at my brothers, they were getting ready to attack her. They knew that eleven mice on the body could shock her enough for her to run screaming, but she was in attack mode. By now I wasn't even paying attention to Gabrielle and Mincy.

Derrek saw them to. "They're gone tackle her. We need to make sure that Mincy is distracted. Just hope that Gabrielle can hold his ground."

I was seriously thinking this was madness. My brothers were getting on all fours. They were going to scurry. We would get on all fours when we scurried through the walls, or were about to fight. Anything else we just walked on two paws. As they were preparing themselves, the two pets were discussing something. When we came back to their talking, I heard Mincy say something, I never thought I would hear her say to Gabrielle. "THAT WAS YOUR LAST STEP! YOU AINT GETTING ANOTHER!"

At that moment, all the rationality in the room went out the window. All eleven of my able bodied brothers came right at her, tackling her. She flew back at their force. Toward a human it wasn't much, but she was small enough to be pushed over by eleven of us. She slid across the smooth kitchen tile. All my brothers were biting at her body, whick I knew hurt. I could tell she was mad. "You all will be dead! I'll eat all of you!" I would have liked to see her try. "Get off of me!" She shrieked. It satisfied me to see them get her. It wasn't everyday you saw a mouse attack a cat, and to see my brothers perform such a stunt was a once in a lifetime moment. She finally shook them all off in a final shake. They all flew off like droplets of water. When they all fell, they gathered toward our side of the room. We always gathered by instinct. Mincy turned their way. Her fur messed up by now. All pointed off in wierd directions. When she turned towards them, she ran at them at full speed. Out of nowhere her run was cut off when Gabrielle butted his head into her side.

He ran into her forcefully, as we all stared in awe. I had never seen Gabrielle attack Mincy before. She ran into the fridge, and stared at Gabrielle as if he had lost his mind. I didn't blame her. He was snarling at this point, baring his teeth. He was between us, and the cat that was surely outwitted. She tried again, reaching a paw out and just as she got she got close, he bit her. My eyes were shocked. She started hissing eratically. "How could you do this? HOW COULD YOU HONESTLY DO THIS?" She hissed.

"Sorry, Mincy." He snarled, trying to sound calm, even though he wasn't. "You didn't leave me any choice." He sighed. He glanced at us, and though I know he wasn't directiong the snarl at us, just that split second of his snarl pointed in our direction was quite horrifying.

She looked at him angrily. "You always have choices. Ever since we came here, we've had choices . . . and you picked the runt of a litter over one of your own?" At this point she was approaching Gabrielle in a fighting stance. He approached her, as her angry face turned frightened.

He glared her down, as she was slowly backing away. She was aware she wouldn't win the fight. He kept her in his glance as he called to us. "Go now. Get him in the house." My brothers didn't have to be told twice. All eleven of them ran up to Derrek, and lifted him up on the cloth. Swiftly they carried him in. Scurrying to the hole, he dissappeared into the haven of the walls. "Get out of here, Laylah. You need to go through the doggy door. I'll be right out." Quickly I grabbed my thumbtack, and my stuff that I tied to the stick. Frightened for my life a haphazardly started fumbling to my feet. I fell down once, but got backup, and leaped up to the doggy door. It was hard to open, but I leaned on it with all my wieght and got through.

I was now outside of the house. I landed on my back a bit painfully from the hieght. Still it wasn't that bad to where it hurt for long. The first step of the rest of my travels. Before I left, I looked through the window. Gabrielle was approaching Mincy with hostility. She was backing up with an angry glare on her face. I could tell he was going to do something he had never done before. She started hissing quietly. "So . . . what's it gunna be, . . . Gabrielle?" She said staring. "You gunna try and kill me?" She said smiling, as she backed away. Gabrielle was still slowly stalking closer. "I hope you try." She said trying to sound honest, and angry at the same time. "Because if you don't, . . . I'll sniff her out." She snarled. It struck fear into me. She didn't notice me. Till then they were already out of the kitchen. I ran over to the window of the foyer. They were still standing off, as Gabrielle was cornering her. By now she was backing near the closet. "I honestly will." She snickered lightly. "I will come after her . . . and I . . . will hunt . . . her . . . down." She said quinting her eyes.

By then they had both stopped moving. Mincy was in the closet. Gabrielle was just outside of it. He had stopped snarling, and stared at her. Slowly he had hung his head low. With sad puppy dog eyes, he stared at her. "I believe you." He sighed. Without a word he took his tail, and flicked it behind the door, and closed the door, with Mincy still inside. He got up on his hind legs, and reached his paw over the lock, locking Mincy in the closet. He trotted away, and I listened to her screeching, and hollaring inside. When she started screaming, that's when I heard a light flick on upstairs. It was the land owners room!

I knew I was dead. I was sure he would look outside. Suddenly the door opened as I hid on the window sill. Hopefully he wouldn't see me. I looked to the side, and noticed a tin can. When he didn't look I zoomed over, and I hid.

"What was that?" I heard him say. I saw his feet turn around. He started approaching the can. I held my breath, and back up as far as I could. The cold metal was against my fur. He hadn't picked the can up. Slowly his feet dissappeared.

That night I saw Gabrielle chained outside, being punished for what he did. It broke my heart. He sat there in the middle of the backyard, his head looking down. I needed to speak to him one last time. Carefully wiggling through the white fence post I walked next to him. He turned his head towards me, and smiled. I looked at him as nicely as I could, but seeing him tied up on my account made it very difficult. "Hey, Gabrielle." I smiled as best I could.

He smiled to me, and walked as close as the chain would allow him to. "Hey, Laylah. I see you got out. I'm glad. You are finally free." He smiled. That was when I really soaked it in. I was actually outside. Feeling the grass on my feet, the wind in my fur, the fresh air in my body. I could hardly wait till the sun came up. Pure ecstacey ran through my bloodstream. "How does the outside world feel?"

Staring around at the beauty of mother nature, I finally said it. "It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." I had never been on the outside world my whole life. Seeing it for the first time was glorious. Quickly my brain swapped back to my baby brother. "Gabrielle! My brother! Is he alright?" I asked, shaking from the grief. I was scared for him.

Gabrielle smiled and nodded. "Only a few bumps and bruises. I can assure you, tomorrow he'll be back on his feet." He winked. "Mincy is calmed down. She won't be hunting the mice anymore." That made me sigh with relief. "She said I scared her so bad, that she'll never try it again." Thank heavens. I couldn't take the grief of knowing they could die without me. "Laylah. I will always miss you." He said to me as he laid his head down. His ears were perked, and he looked at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen.

"I will miss you too." I said as my ears hung low. I slung my stuff over my shoulder, and took off towards the highway. The highway was getting closer, as the boarding house got smaller. When i looked behind me, it was just a tiny little house now. While looking back, I heard a very tormented howl behind me.


	6. Chester the carriage horse

The rest of the night I tried sleeping near a hole near a tree. It seemed deserted, so that seemed like the best place to nap. It wasn't as cozy as the walls of a well heated boarding house, but I could always make due, personally. At an hour before sunrise I was awake. The nap did not work out for me. Well, at least nobody stole my stuff. I walked all the way to the highway. It was a big highway speaking in terms of mouse distance. I had personally never seen anything like it, except for in brochures, and books. As I walked, I saw a group of mice standing near a large sign. The sign said **Santa Ana Mountains Bus Stop**. A few mice stood there. One was dressed in a black apron with a biege shirt underneath. He wore a big coat over it, and dark grey trousers. Apparently he lived in thecountryside, and worked in the city.

Another mouse was dressed in a beautiful red dress. Perhaps she was headed to the city to see an old lover. Her peticoat was so luxurious. It was fastened with an exsquisite broach. My theiving instincts told me to steal it, but there was no reason to. It wasn't food, and I had already eaten before I left. Besides mother gave me sixty gold coins, that I kept in the sheet of stuff. When I took out the map, I traced my finger over the spots, that would help lead me to Bakersfield. I lead my finger over the snaky like line that lead to my destination. It looked so much quicker on paper, but I knew better then to let myself be fooled

Not quite being one hundred percent sure, I walked up to a short yet elderly mouse. He was no doubt a woodmouse, as I had learned from my fathers book of mouse species. Whenever a mouse would enter the clan, he would make sure it was a deer mouse. Others would cruely be cast out. I never understood his cruelty, and prejudism towards other species, but then again, we were often ridiculed by our own stereotypes as well. We were alwys ridiculed as being the gypsies of the mouse world, which was often a rude slang term referring that we are of poor morals. I took great anger in those who would call me gypsy. Anyway, I looked kindly at the man. He returned the smile, as he gripped his cane, as if I would knock it out from under him. He might have thought I couldn't tell, but I could. "Excuse me. I don't want to be rude, but could you tell me, if this is a good route to get to Bakersfield?" I held the map up to him, as he looked over it. He took one side in his shakey hand.

He looked at the map with great astonishment. "Why, yes it is." He said raising a white eyebrow. "My, oh, my. You are going a long way aren't you?" He scoffed. "Such a journey is long enough for a human, but for a mouse, you have a long road ahead of you." I nodded. Suddenly out of nowhere, a large gust of wind swept through chilling me to the bone. Being from a struggling family, I guess you could say me and my brothers weren't exactly of "healthy wieght". You could say my clan was very boney, and skinny. We were skeletons, and the other mice looked at me as I shivered.

The woman who looked rich with the red dress stared at me as if I was a pethetic little weakling, which I suppose I was. "Oh, you poor thing. You have no clothes." I was not going to point out the obviousness of my poverty. She could tell there was no choice for somebody of my standards. It was true. I was suitless. Not that it was considered public nudity. Us rodents couldn't always be clothed like the humans could. We usually got by with nothing at all. Though, still in the cities, all mice wore clothes. I knew more about the outside world than I thought. Probably all those books I read in the boarding house's mouse library. We got many things from the outside world. Especially when a traveler joined us. As it turned out, reading paid off. "You surely can't go to the city like this." She said sadly. "Here, take this. Considering the winter weather, you'll want this to keep you warm." She pulled out a big warm looking yet thin blanket. "It will keep you warm easily, considering it's Egyptian cotton." Whatever the heck it was, it was warm. Very warm. I wrapped it around my body, and smiled to the woman.

"Thank you so much ma'am." I said as sweetly as I could. We waited at the bus stop, and soon enough, a bus came by. It was large, just like the buses I saw on television. I watched as the humans boarded the bus on the sidewalk behind us. On the back end, I saw a mouse in a train conductor suit. He was wavng a lantern. "All aboard for downtown Santa Ana. Have your tokens, tickets, and fare ready." I ran to the back along with the other mice. We all ran up to the back, and he let down a rope ladder. That's when I saw it. A small little box was bolted under the bus. It seemed like it could fit many mice inside. Each of us climbed it. The woman gave a token, the elderly man gave a ticket, along with a few other mice, the working looking man gave a few silver pices, and I paid with one gold coin. We all took our seats, as the large monsterous bus roared into motion. I sat there as it took me to the city. A small pinky sat next to me on my right, along with a big white rat on the left. I wasn't too frightened. It wasn't like he would mug me infront of everyone. The map said that this bus would take me to the metro area of Santa Ana. Hopefully it would take me there without trouble.

When I folded my map away. I saw the red orb of the sun coming up to the East. It was now the start of a brand new day, in the city. When I saw the city coming into view, I could have swore my eyes were wider than nickles. It was beautiful. On the side of the road, I saw water. I got out of my seat, and ran over to the other side of the boxed area. I heard the conductor yell something to me, but I wasn't listening. The river was more beautiul than anything I could ever imagine. Gabrielle would have never believed me if I told him about this.

The large rat that sat next to me was reading the paper. He was pretty quiet, and wore some tight fitting muscle clothes. I don't know for sure, but it seemed he worked construction. I read the cover story. It seemed to be about a crime. **_"Famous detective solves case of stolen jewels." _**I have no idea why it caught my eye, but whoever it was sounded brave. The rat noticed my gaze on the front page. "Pretty amazing, huh?" I nodded slowly, and looked down to the floor, smiling. "Yeah, he's famous around here. Have you ever heard of him?" He asked returning to the article he was reading.

I shook my head. "Well, no. I haven't. I don't even know his name. Then again, I'm not from around here." I shrugged. He nodded, understanding perfectly. He didn't give me a second glance, and kept on reading the news. Sitting there silently was easy when the sights passed by. The city was beautiful. Such amazing taste. The buildings had that old bricky industrial look. Like they were very old. The palm trees were taller than I ever imagined. They were taller than they looked in the pamphlets, and they looked pretty tall to start with. That's when the conducter looked up at the human area of the bus. The bus stopped at a bus sign. "All right. Last stop. Metro area of Santa Ana," That was the last stop that it would make. I thought that I could probably stay here for a day. When the bus stopped, the conducter let down a little rope for us to slide down. We all got down single file. I hopped to the pavement, as I looked over at the humans getting off near the front.

My luggage was once again flung over my shoulder. I looked around, and was quite amazed by everything. Now to find out where to go. I honestly didn't know at all. Perhaps one of the traffic animals would know. I stared up, and saw a few signs. They were only street signs, and probably didn't give me any information. I absent mindedly walked a while. Maybe I would meet somebody that could help me. Humans of course were in no position, in any matter to help. They were too ignorant to understand animal lingo, and never tolerated my kind. I had been walking for a long time. Minutes then became hours. When I checked a building clock, it was five, and I had not eaten since I was at home. I needed to start getting something in my stomach and on my body quickly. A group of older women, that were still plenty young stared at me giggling. I heard one of them mumble something. "Sheesh. And they say you can't find find country trash in the city." I wasn't going to listen to that. If I wanted , I could steal them all blind, but four against one did not work in my favor. Besides I didn't really care what they said. They could never set off sixteen traps in a single day, like my brothers could.

Out of nowhere the ground started to shake. I heard the clicking of hooves that I heard on T.V. before. I could recognize that sound. When I turned around, I saw a beautiful white horse, that was attached to an elegant white, and gold carriage. Apparently a rich family inside. When I looked up, the traffic light changed to red. Now was my chance. He wa a big fella, and could step on me, so I had to be fast. Running in the middle of the road, I jumped up and down multiple times. "HEY. SIR! YOU IN THE WHITE!" He looked to the left and right sides, not quite knowing who was calling him. "DOWN HERE!" I called.

He looked down, and saw me. "Well, hello, madam. What can I do for you?" He smiled. He lowered his huge neck, so he could hear me.

I looked up. "Well, I'm new here in town. I'm from the country." He looked at me with an eyebrow raised, telling me he was very aware. I must have stuck out quite easily. "I was hoping to find a way to get somewhere to eat. You see I haven't had anythng to eat." I said. The way he looked at me, said he was not surprised. From my bones, I must have looked sickly. When you are from a colony where everybody is skinny you don't notice it, but here in the city I stuck out like a carrot in peas.

"Say no more, say no more." He nodded. "I can get you to a nice little pub that sells some good food." What luck. The city was easier than I thought. I didn't know this horse could find me anything. "It's a sweet little mouse pub, that sells exclusively to rodents. Though it does sell, to others, such as bats, and frogs, though you will probably only find mice at this hour." As long as it sold food, that was enough for me. "Fortunately my master's carriage ride goes by there, so if you want you can grab onto the carriage, and I could give you a lift. "He whinnied the way horses do, and pointed towards the carriage. I looked behind myself, and smiled. I jumped up on the spokes of the wheel, and up the wheel frame. Getting on the general frame, I scurried up an iron bar, and leaped up to the cushion, and jumped on the tip top in the back. I got a full view of the coachman, and the rich beautiful old woman in the seat. Her long gown was gorgeous, and a furry boa wrapped around her neck. She was probably on her way to a fancy rich party.

When I looked down on the streets, a few of the mice looked up to where I was, on top. An elderly couple waved at me, as I smiled and returned the gesture. A mother mouse with a baby looked up at me. The baby giggles, and the mother mouse stared up at me in an unkind manner. The sun was peeking through clouds slightly. The closer, and more central I got to the center of the city, I started seeing mice in victorian styles of clothing. We as mice were not as advanced as the humans were while humans were very advance technologically wise, we were stuck in the victorian era of discovery. Much of the style of thinking and society that was lost to them, was still fresh in our minds. Men wore white shirts, with bowties, and capes, with coats, and hats. Women wore beautiful evening dress, with large braches, and peticoats. We as as a clan never had to worry about the burden of clothes. Though now that I was in the city, I supposed it seemed a necessity. At least something to cover myself up, even slightly.

As the carriage rolled along, I struck up conversation with this steed. He seemed to be from around here. Certainly he would have an idea on how to find a route to Los Angeles. If he were from around here, then he would surely know where to go. "So, you seem to have a good sense of direction, Mr. . . . uh . . . " I had not quite caught his name. I could only wonder what it could have been.

"Chester." He said glancing behind himself. "The name is Chester and yes. I have lived in Santa Ana my whole life. My ancstors were carraige horses as I am. I know every single road in this town." This made me smile. Hopefully he knew where exactly to go to get to Los Angeles, which was where my crossroads were to get to Bakersfield. "If you don't mind me asking, what is your name? I would love to know the names of my companions on the road." He said walking along the path.

"The name is Laylah. Laylah Adler. I'm sort of from the country, and while I'm headed to get something to eat, my main goal is for Los Angeles. It's the cross roads to where I have to go." I said looking at the streets. The mice around me were getting more prominent. I could tell we were getting close.

His ears flicked in my direction. Apparently I had said that Los Angeles was my destination, it sparked some thought in his mind. "Oh, really? Well, you should be happy that we met little Laylah girl. In the direction I'm headed is the direction of Los Angeles itself. I'm not going there, honestly. Just the direction it's headed." That was fantastic news. If it were the truth, then getting to Bakersfield would be easier than I thought. As he pulled the carriage down the road, I started getting ideas about what the house would look like. Maybe I would settle in a modern abstract fashion mansion, or maybe a Victorian style one. The time was wearing to sunset.

Suddenly along the lines, the carriage slowed to a stop. I saw the light turn red. Chester stopped walking along the road, and turned around. "Well, here it is. The olde ship is what the humans call their area of the pub. Right underneath is your rodent's area of the pub. They take gold coins, so by what you have, you could get a good meal. It's okay I guess. If you see a few seedy people inside, don't be afraid. Judging by the way you look, it seems like you haven't been out much." I grinned knowing what he meant. Right underneath the humans area of the pub, you could see hair length windows. They were horizontal, and not too big, but big enough to see out of.

Smiling, I jumped down, and out of the cariage. Quickly scaling my way down, I scurried on all fours, and made my way onto the pavement. When I made my way down, I walked infront of Chester. "Thank you for giving me a ride toward the pub. I really appreciate the gesture." I smiled up at him. He snorted happily, and watched me run quickly over to the sidewalk as to not be run over by any cars. "Once again, thank you for all the help. I will see you around my brother." At the word "brother", he raised a brow. I understood that it did sould a bit off. "Oh, uh. Brother at heart. It's what we deer mice do. When we become close with a passerby we claim them as part of our brotherhoos, and sister . . . hood. Anyway, you are a brother to me." At this he nodded up and down, smiling. Suddenly the light turned green. He strode off into the streets.


	7. Drunk

When Chester took off into the streets, I stared up at the giant human's area of the pub. It said **The Olde Ship. Pub and Restaurant. **The windows were dusty, and barely transparent to see through. Though it was hard to see inside, there was enough light coming out of the pub to see inside. A glow of the lights inside showed a bunch of men talking, and smoking. A group would laugh in a corner, as the enjoyed their pints. Some looked totally depressed. In the back, I saw a woman filling up a glass with ice and water. If they served water then no doubt they served it in the mouse dining room. The streets were getting incredibly dark, and I knew that if I were to stay safe for the night, then getting inside somewhere would be a good idea. Finally I got down from the large window, and made my way to the mouse's area. A small lantern overhead lit the mouse's entrance. Two windows were on both sides of the door. When I looked inside, everyone had clothes on. Women wore very suggestive evening clothes. While they dressed in an inappropriate manner, others wore casual dress. Men wore trousers, and evening relaxation shirts, that seemed much more like casual wear for a good time. Be it in a rspectable, or entirely unapealing manner, everybody was wearing some type of garments, while I had nothing.

To get through the city, I needed threads. And the bandana around my tail just wouldn't do it. I needed some clothes to get into this place. I didn't necesarrily want to get in for a drink, but just to have something to eat. It was well known that in pubs, and bars, and stuff like that food isn't really that amazing, but it beat stealing food from a human, and risk getting killed. That was not my game anymore. I saw a few mice and rats eating some foods. Some ate pork rinds, while others ate pieces of chips. When I finally figured it out, everyone had a bit of food. It wasn't until I noticed all the food type, that I realized. This wasn't an American pub. It was a British pub! Well, maybe they wouldn't notice I was American. After all I didn't really stand out all that much I was the runt of the litter, making me ecceptionally small. Even smaller than most of my younger brothers. I knew they would think I was under the age of sixteen, but when I spoke, they figured out I was a runt mouse.

Suddenly I heard a subtle voice. You couldn't call it a whisper, but you couldn't call it an audible voice either. It was someplace between the two. "Hey, kid." I looked around, wondering where the voice was coming from. "Over here, kid." I looked behind myself, and saw a rather tall yet skinny mouse. He wore a trench coat, and hunched over, to keep his face out of sight. He wore a large newsboy cap over his head, and was looking around with a sneaky suspicious eye. "Come here." I was the only one around, so I could only assume he was talking to me. I scurried over, and he walked inot a alley way. "You look like you could use some threads, kid."

It was like he read my mind. "Well, yes. I could use something to cover myself." I said shrugging lightly. "I could probably use something to help me fit in."

He reached into his trench coat, and pulled out a small black box. "Then fit into this." He said. When he opened the box, he revealed a thin fabricated black cloak. It reminded me of the types of cloaks that the elves wore in Lord of the Rings. Dejuhnay was a big Lord of the Rings fan. The cloak was velvet fabric. Enough to not make you the center of attention. It didn't look very heavy either. "It's a black velvet cloak. Very normally worn in England. I noticed you were eyeing the inside of the pub, and this will help you seem like you belong there."

"Wow!" I said looking at it. "This is perfect." I tried grabbing it. Without gving me a chance to even feel it, he snatched it away, restricting it to his hands only. "Well, what do you want for it?" I asked him sincerely.

He looked behind himself, quickly, noticing there was nobody around to hear him. "What you got to trade with me?"

"Well, I got this blanket. A rich lady gave it to me." He looked at it, and held it up. He unfolded it, and checked it out. "I suppose you would be able to make a new cloak out of that or something, I guess." He studied the material, and smiled. Apparently he decided it was a deal.

He shoved it into his briefcase. "Yeah, okay, great, thanks. Got anything more? I mean this is a very expensive cloak, made from fine material. A blanket just don't add up to it." Well, I thought that there was really nothing else to trade for it. All I had left was my paper clip, my thumb tack, my map, and the sheet it was wrapped in.

I thought there was nothing left, but suddenly I remembered the sixty gold coins I had, well now it was fifty nine. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out five from it, and held it up. "This is all I have left that I can give." I lied. No way was he going to find out that I had fifty four gold coins left, or he would want the rest of them too. He smiled at the five glistening pieces in my hand. He reached for them, and as soon as he got close, I pulled back. "Three gold pieces. Nothing more." I said, my hand clenching the gold. I knew that even a cloak as fine as this, I would need to be tight fisted. I was far from home, and I didn't know when I would find a job around here.

He looked at me, squinting his eyes. Looking around, he saw a pair of elderly mice walking past the ally way. Apparently he was getting a bit frightened off. I knew that it was either the blanket or nothing, and he knew as well. Closing his eyes, he sighed. "Alright kid. Normally I don't make deals with the stakes being this low, but for you, kid, I'll make an exception." Swiftly we had to make the trade before we got into any trouble. He handed me the box, and I handed him the blanket. As he disappeared into the night, I opened the box, and put the cloak on. It looked better than I ever imagined it to look. The hood was so large around my head, that the sides of it draped over me shoulders, but other than that, it looked great.

As soon as I got it all laced up, and nice looking, I decided to head into the bar. The lantern overhead flickered, and made my shadow dance upon the ground. Honestly I had never been in abar before. When I was small, alot of mice in my colony would go down below the basement of the house. Underneath the boarding house's basement wooden planks, was where my father financed the bars, pubs, and saloons. had I ever gone to a pub, or bar, I figured it would be within my own colony. This was the real world now, though. There were no walls here. This was a real city, with real pubs. The door had a ship style window. Hoping that I wouldn't stand out too much, I took a deep breath. Clutching the door handle, the door opened with the loudest creak you could think of. Inside there was a big long counter for people to sit at, if you didn't want a table. It was faced at the door, and was positioned on the opposite wall, so it was the first thing you saw when you came in. Behind the counter stood two mice. One was a man, that wore a server's outfit. The other was a lady that was quite curved, and had the body I wish I had. She was simply dazzling. Her hair was curly, and light brown. Beautiful evening makeup was on her face, and she had a little beauty mark on the left side of her face. She wore a blue sleeveless dress, with an apron on, probably for serving food. Her ears were adorned with a flower on each side.

On the far right was a piano that was played by a mouse that was dressed in a saloon worker outfit. He played a song that sounded like it was from the lower class part of England. I quickly recognized it as the song Maple leaf rag. Walking in, I walked slowly trying not to be noticed. A few of the mice looked at the doorway when I had opened. Most of them paid no heed to my entrance. A few kept their gaze when I walked in. Some of them looked at me as if I was from another planet. I understand why. It was true that there were no mice quite like me there. Most of the mice were focusing on their games of cards, or talking amung themselves. Alot of laughter was heard in the center parts of the bar. Few of them were really looking at me, but there were still some that didn't take their eyes off of me. It might have been very few people, but one felt like a hundred sets of eyes. Some men glared at me, as if to signal to me that they didn't want anything to do with me, like I would cause trouble.

I saw one table in particular that had a few men, and a woman there. The men looked like they had never had contact with a bar of soap in their entire life. All of them were about twice my size. The largest one was probably triple my size. The woman was not too flattering to the average gentleman. She looked like a woman of suspicious intentions. Her skirt was considerable short, and her shoes were high heels. The way to top it all off was the off the shoulder blouse. She would not wear such clothes in church. Her hieght, though made her look tall and exotic. Suddenly I noticed that they were each looking at me. The shortest one of them all whispered in the tall woman's ear, and when he pulled back, they all started laughing and pointing at me. Hrmph! So much for thinking that all English people were well-mannered. I felt embarrased, and as I walked past their table, I pulled my hood of my cloak down further over my face. They didn't need to see my face had they thought I was this peculiar.

Finally I reached the other side of the pub, and had a seat at the counter, keeping my face down. When I took a seat, a menu was sent sliding up to me. It stopped, when it hit my fore arm. I looked up, and saw the sweet waitress, I saw when I came in. "Well, hello litle miss." She said to me as I opened up the menu smiling. She had been dry a glass with a wash rag."What's your pleasure?" Knowing she wasn't the type to judge, I knew it was safe to pull my hood back, and let my face be revealed. She took a glance at me, and made a surprised face. When it gotten as surprised as it could, it slowly turned to a grin. "Well, how do you like that? We don't get many a your kind round here." I raised an eyebrow. "What I mean is deer mice. Not many are really the drinkin type. I've only seen a handful of em." She said raising an eyebrow. Now that I thought about it, she was right. Ever since I had gotten out, I had not seen a single deer mouse. "Never before though, have I seen a deer mouse the same color as you though." I nodded. My fur color was of very few deer mice. I was the only one of my brothers with this color fur. The whole colony was different now that I thought about it.

"True. Not many deer mice have my fur color." I smiled up to her.

She looked at me once again, amazed. "Oh, dear. Well, I have to say. You have surprised me, twice. Didn't know you were a yank." I knew I would get somebody pointing that one out. At her statement, alot more people started staring. "Hmm, well assumin that you never been 'ere before, I'll get ya a nice plate of British crumpets for ya honey." Thinking that would taste great, I closed the menu, and handed it to her. I looked around at the people that were staring at me. When I met their gaze, they averted their eyes, quickly trying to appear as though they weren't looking at me. Jerks. She poured some water for me, and I drank it down fast, wanting more.

When I put the glass down, I wiped my mouth, happy that I got what I wanted. I was thirsty for longer than I thought. No wonder, though. I had gone all day without a drink. When the food was put infront of me, I was happy, and starved. While munching down the crumpets, I looked at my map, circling the spots that would be best to use to cut across fields and roads. My destination was Los Angeles, and then straight on north to Bakersfield. It was such a long way. Humans would have an easy route there no problem, but a mouse? I got the shiveries just thinking about it. Yipes! What a journey!

As everybody enjoyed their beers, and wine, and different types of drinks, I noticed a field mouse looking at me in the corner of the room. He saw me glance his way, and grinned in my direction. He started approaching me, coming closer. I looked away, as not to seem like I was staring. Sitting down next to me, I still paid attention to my food, trying to control my eating as to not seem like I was starving which of course was hard. We were not so slow as human were when it came to eat. Us wild mice were never certain where the next meal would come from.

When I saw him still staring at me, I smied up to him. "Well, I have to say. We don't get much of you in here." He said in a British accent.

"I beg your pardon?" I said raising an eyebrow. "Not so sure what you mean, Mr. English mouse." I said smirkingly. He knew a good joke when he heard.

He grinned wider knowing what that was, and expected a joke to come right back at me. "Well, little yankee girl. Not many people come here looking for a meal. We get more yanks, than we do dry customers. I was more surprised you didn't get a drink." Well, not many teenage mice were drinkers. We at age sicteen were allowed to drink, but my father was who he was. My older brothers had drank before, but not to where they would completely trashed. So what was the harm of having one? He snickered, and ordered a pint. "Thanks Sharon. I need a pint. Oh, would you like to have one kid?" He said smiling my way. Shrugging, I thought one might not hurt. I nodded ready for a bit of an adventure. "Sharon we need another one for the girl over here."

This woman, who's name was apparently Sharon smiled and filled me up a copper colored logger of drink. I looked at the big tower of drink. The beautiful creation was full to the brim. The foam was sitting right at the top, ready to collapse any moment, but so far not yet. My father had warned me all the time that a young mouse at my age, and size should never drink. 'A runt of the litter drinking always leads to nothing but disaster!' Even when he wasn't around, I could hear him in my head. Oh bah! What did he know? "Bottoms up." I smiled to the man, and we tapped our glasses together, and drank them down. At first the taste was not too appealing. To be honest, it tasted like Mincy sweat, or what I thought it would tast like. But then after a while the taste was gone, and I could manage it down without getting sick. "Wow!" I said putting the half full glass down. "That was . . . interesting." As I quickly learned, it was more of an aquired taste. Soon the first glass was completely empty. At the end, I thought it was just so great. Nothing quite like it.

He looked at me raising an eyebrow. "So, how was your first full glass of alcohol? All you expected it to be?" He asked smiling as if he was hoping I would have a good time.

Grinning at him in a way I normally wouldn't, (which was in a way of relaxation, which, by the way isn't how I act with strangers) and nodded lazily. "You bet. It was all I thought it would be, and more. This morning, I was crying over ditching my boyfriends place, but I'll tell you, Mr. . . . uh . . . "

"Buster's the name." He said half closing his eyelids. I grinned to him.

I leaned close to him. "Well, Buster. I will tell you that the drink I just had hit the spot. The beer had me feeling better already."

He smiled to me knowing that I was happy. "You want some more beers? I work here, and get free ones during the weekend." He smiled to me. I looked at him like he was kidding. I smiled, and nodded letting him know that I was up for it. "Okay, kid. Oh, Sharon, let's get another round over here."

Well, when Sharon put another glass up to me, I thought that as long as I didn't get carried away, I would be fine. Soon enough, one beer became two . . . then three, then four." Pretty soon I was a little drunk. I was little and I was a drunk. Ha ha! But seriously. The whole time I was spending some time with buster. He was trying to make sure that I didn't go crazy balistic. We spent the night talking, and I told him a bit about where I was from. I told him alot about Gabrielle and what went on before I left. "I-I-I don-don't know what the-my problem is." I said not quite knowing how to put my words in order. "I mean, I mean I look good, I think. I gots a-a-a family, well I-I-I did." He was listening the whole time. " I just wish that Mincy would just disappear. I don't know what's wrong with me." Right at that moment Sharon walked by grinning as if she had a joke. I figured I would ask her. "Do you know what's wrong with me, Sharon?" She shook her head, grinning at me.

Buster pulled me back onto my seat when I leaned halfway over the bar. He sat me back down. "Well, at the moment, I think it is large quantities of alcohol." He chuckled. I made raspberry noise, and waved my hand.

"Oh, come on. I'm fine." That's when I said something that I wouldn't normally say to a stranger. "You know. You are a really nice guy. Ususally you meet horrible people in the world, but I like you. If there was a nice guy competition, you would win . . . . or give first place to the last place person . . . whichever one's nicer." I snickered. When I looked around the bar, a few mice were looking in my direction snickering lightly. Then I leaned up against Buster cause I felt like leaning on somebody. "Oh, I don't know. No matter what i do, I just seem to drive other mice away. Maybe I just try too hard. First it was Chris, a member from my escape squad, that helped get trapped mice out of traps, then Robert but he turned out to marry my friend, and Sterling who was only in me for the leadership role, and don't forget the jerk Casey, who was too mean to me. I guess Gabrielle was the only one I ever loved." I shrugged.

When all the other mice were leaving the pub, I tried, but my feet just weren't agreeing with me. While I wanted to go, they wanted to stay. The last people there were Buster and Sharon. They watched with a dissappointed loook on their face, as I tried to leave. At that point, I finally undertood why my father had warned me about trying to drink. Buster and Sharon had walked me into the backroom. Back there was a nice bed, built just for mice. They let me sleep there for the night.


	8. On the road again

When I woke up the next morning, not much had really clicked with me. All I could think about was this horrible pain in my head. It felt like a headache but worse. Like somebody had stuck a mousetrap onto my scalp. The throbbing was terrible. Had I gotten knocked out by Mincy? I didn't want to open up my eyes. Way too painful. I thought if I did, I would wake up in her stomach or something. Well, my body didn't feel chewed up, or broken bones, so obviously she didn't chew me. My head had settled enough to where I could open my eyes. The light was not good for my eyes. They had grown a bit sensetive. I woke up in a soft cozy little bed. A pillow that was about as soft as the ear of a lamb. How had I honestly gotten here? I was all cleaned up, and well rested, other than my head of course. What had honestly happened to my head? Now I had suddenly started remembering that I was out of the house. When you lived in the house as long as I have, it was hard actually remembering that you left.

Suddenly things started to clear up a bit. I had finally remembered how I got here. I had stayed in the pub to get a bit of food. But, that's all I did . . . right? Suddenly I started hoping that I hadn't drank anything. My father would have killed me if I were still living in the house. In the room were a few pieces of furniture, such as a chair, a shelf with books, and a table by the bed, with an oil lamp on it. I turned the flame low so my eyes wouldn't take the light so badly. There were no windows, but I was sure it was morning, or at least morning time, anyway. Had the sun been up or not, I didn't know. Opening the door, I saw that Sharon was still here. She was cleaning out an empty glass. When she turned in my direction she smiled. "Well, look who's bright eyed, and tufted tailed." When I stared at my self, I had noticed that my expensive cloak and my family baby blue scarf around my tail was gone. "Buster. The little lass is awake now." The bar looked very different in the morning. Sunlight poured in through the windows, which were practically the whole side of the front wall. The only part where you didn't see the sunlight shine through was the wooden door, and the part of the window where the title of the pub was at. It was backwards from where I stood. I supposed it was for people outside. In the corner, on a wall, there was nail on the wall. My cloak was hung over it, along with my scarf folded over it. Sharon handed me an evening robe, and flagged it over my shoulders, as i worked my arms, and tail into the holes. I knew i would have to get used to wearing clothes, if I were to live outside of the walls of the boarding house. True, I thought as I tied it at the waist. I would miss the place greatly

Inside the room was full of sunlight, and didn't look so seedy. The mouse that was playing the piano last night, walked down the mouse sized steps that were in the upper left hand corner of the pub. He was very tall, and considerably handsome. He stared at me and smiled. Waving to me kindly he walked over to the front door, opening it, to grab a newspaper. He started reading it. I could only guess that he had been a residence in this pub, and would sneak up to the humans part often. I guessed that when I saw a scar of his tail, that looked like a mouse trap scar. I must have not noticed it last night.

Turning towards a squish sound, I saw Buster come out with a mop and bucket. He looked up, and raised his eyebrows when he saw me. I smiled back. "Well, little one. It's nice to see you all sobered up. I take it you are not the drinking type. he he." He said without smugness. I shrugged in response. "Well, no doubt that you have a terrible headache. So I'll keep my voice down." He said sliming the mop back and forth against the ground. Some areas were nastier than I expected. The spot where that inappropriately dressed mouse was sitting looked terrible. Maybe she got sick. Hrmph! Serves her right to treat me with disrespect. Sharon pulled a chair away from a table, and told me to have a seat. "If I get too loud you can tell me to keep it quiet. I don't mind."

"Thank you." I smiled raising an eyebrow. My head was like a jackhammer. It felt like it was blown up like a balloon. I just wanted to unscrew it, and let the pain seep out. I laid my arms folded on the table, and sat my head in them. Sharon handed me a menu, as if I wasn't already sickly enough. "What's this for. I take it you know how much of a hangover I have." I folded it back up and held it up to her. "Please nothing more. I just want to sit for a while." I sulked. A little bit of time and hopefully some non english accented mice would do some good.

She rolled her eyes, and her beautiful foriegn voice spoke up. "Oh, I want to hear nothing more of that. Here. If you drink some fruit juice it will make you feel better. Also I'm going to get you some nice cheese bagels." I smiled at her courteousness. I gave her two gold coins to cover for the fruit juice, and cheese bagels. When I handed her three more, she put them back in my hand. I suppose last night was on the house. Either that, or they were trying to teach me my first lesson about drinking. If so, lesson learned. I'm pretty sure the lesson was not to ever overdrink. Well, if that was the lesson, I learned a personal lesson. Never drink at all! When a white footed mouse approached from outside, she glanced at the sign, and then looked inside. She then kept walking. I could only assume that the pub was not ready to open yet.

As Sharon laid a plate of food out infront of me, I started on it, and as soon as I had the first taste of the bagel, I realized that my body really was hungry. When the bagel hit my throat, it felt hungry. For us in the house, we never knew when we would get our next meal. We just ate when we could, and when we ate, it wasn't much. So this was a real treat. I would probably have to get used to eating at normal times. When I glanced over at the piano player, he was still reading. The newspapers title caught my eye once again. **_Famous detective solves_** **_case of missing toy maker. _**I could only assume that it was the same mystery detective that I read about on the rats newspaper on the bus. Deciding to get a closer look, I stumbled over with a drumming headache, to the newspaper. When I had finally gotten there, I read a bit about them.

_"The famous detective, Basil of Baker Street has saved yet another life. On the twentieth of April this year a toymaker by the last name of Flaversham, was kidnapped by criminal professor Ratigan, age twenty seven. He had planned on having him build against his will"_

Wanting to hear the end I skipped to the bottom of the page.

_Having decided to retire from terrorist work, and having foiled the criminal once and for all, Basil of bakerstreet took a ship to the Americas this week, to settle in an American lifestyle. He has taken a liking to Lo Angeles, and plans to stay there. Regardless of all the crime that exceeds from England, in America, he insists on staying. "I feel that I was called here for a purpose. Besides if the West is as outlawish as we think it is, we could help a little out here." He and his assistant have moved to a little spot in the corner of an old house in Los Angeles, that is at 221b Bakerstreet. Oddly enough the same adress of his previous home."_

The piano player looked at me and smiled. "Well, hello, little anebrea. I can see you're back to your old self once more. Good ridence. You were more entertaining than I was dear girl." I decided to ignore him, though I was embarrased by a mile. I must have done some things that I didn't remember. Not listening to him, I looked closer at the page, but before I could read more, I had to know who this mouse was, and what species he was. If he had been so famous, and had actually move to Los Angeles, then there was chance I would run into him at some point.

"Excuse me, Mr. Piano player. I don't want to sound ignorant, but this mouse on the front page, who is he, exactly?" I asked. Sure I knew hs name, but I had no clue what his significance was. The piano player sighed, and folded the newspaper by it's spine, and took a glance at the top article. When he looked at it, he glanced at it clearly exhausted looking, like he had not had his morning coffee. Then he looked at me looking glazed over. He looked back one more time, and his lazy look turned to one of surprise.

He stared at me in surprise, and held the front cover up to my face, and pointed at it. "You're asking me who _this _is?" He said poking the top article. I could tell, that not knowing who this mouse was, must have been considered a travesty amung outsiders. "That it Basil of bakerstreet that is!" He said poking the paper. "Don't tell me you never benn hearin o Basil of baker street." I shook my head no and shrugged my shoulders. "He is the detective of detectives." He said his voice fluid. "Some consider him a hero. Others consider him a genious." He said opening the paper back up. "Me, well, all I has to say is that he's a medler. Stickin is nose inta things that he ought not to be stickin it in." From that statement the pianist flipped through a few pages, then held the picture's article up to me. "This be what he looks like." It showed a picture of a mouse looking smug. He held a magnifying glass in his left hand, and had his right hand around a shorter mouse's sholder. the taller mouse was the one whom I assumed was basil. His hair on his head was a bit shaggy. Even shaggier than my hair do. He was considerably tall, even for a house mouse. He dressed very nicely, which was not a way to sound humble on my account. The most outstading feature that caught my eye was his very distinguishing nose. He had a very big nose, and while deer mice had short ones, it was a nose that I rarely had ever seen. Sure a few of our kind had met house mice, but even they did not have a honker like this mouse did. Under the nose I saw a lighter colored coat, a bit like I had. His though was not white. It wa a lighter shade of brown. The other mouse was much shorter, yet alot rounder. He seemed like he had been a fine mouse. one that was very considerate. He was a bit on the pudgy side, but not too much. His eyebrows and mustache were a light sandy blonde color. It looked very nice in comparrison to his fur color. Both of them had hairless naked string like tails. Very different in comparrison to a deer mouse tail.

Looking up at the piano playing mouse, I snorted. "Hmm. Well, he has a very distinctive nose. I will say that much. But all in all, he is quite ugly." I can't believe I had said something like that about somebody I have never met. Perhaps it was the the way he looked so smug. His abnormally large nose seemed to be held high in photo, as if he were high above the rest. I knew all to well, that he wasn't. He looked like he was above anybody he met. With all the ways that people were making him sound so superior, somebody had to take this common brown house mouse down a notch or two. While I was pretty sure I would not meet him, I was pretty aware of my methods to make him sound not so grand. Why was I trying to get out of my way to make this particular mouse so negatively viewed? I don't know. I shouldn't be getting invloved with that. I should however be getting back on the road.

Walking over to my cloak and scarf, I picked up my thumb tack and tied it to my tail using my baby blue scarf. An easy way to keep track of it, and easy to pull out in case of emergency. I also grabbed my cloak, flagged it over my shoulders, and started fascening it all up, tieing, wherever need be tied. With that I grabbed my supplies, and took out the map. I swung the handle of my supplies over my shoulder, and stared at my locatio trying to find a good pass to Los Angeles. I traced my finger around the paper. Buster stared at me and looked at my finger as I traced the shortest routes to L.A. Wen I did so he smirked.

"What's so funny?" I said squinting my eyes as he stared at me over my shoulder.

He rolled his eyes, and picked up a human sized gift wrapping ribbon from the counter. "Well, you honestly don't think you would be able to get to L.A. by tonight did you?" I raised an eyebrow. I sort of did. How hard could that be? "I mean California is a big place. Alot of it is owned by humans, and not to mention perilous! Very few a rodent have made made it to Los Angeles ina single day from here. You would have to travel like a hornt to get there." That did not make me very confident. "Here. Perhaps this will help." He grabbed my luggage from my hands. Placing the sheet on the floor in a square flat format he was putting things in an orderly fashion, and started folding the sheet along different parts in many different ways. Finally he picked it up. "Turn around." He said blankly. I did so, then he started weaving the ribbo around my body, and started knotting, and lacing, and finally the whole thing was tied to me, like a backpack. It was much easier than ieing things in a bag, and flinging it over my shoulder. "There. That should help you get there faster, and keep you from slowing down."

I looked in the mirror, and I looked like a modern human camper. Things tied in accordance, and ready on my way, he opened a slot, and pulled out the map. "Thank you. buster. I wish I could put you in my bag, and bring you along." I joked.

Sharon jogged over to me, and grabbed me before I made my way out the door. "Hold up one sec, my dear. You are going to need this." She grabbed a pen, and circled a spot on my map that was the Los Angeles area. "There. In that little road, look for a large green house. Underneath it lies another british mouse pub. My twin sister works there, and I wrote her a letter that you would be headed there, so if you stop anywhere, I mailed her some gold coins. That way your meals are on the house." I smiled at her generosity. "Oh, and one last thing." Shhe muttered to me. "I told her not to serve you any alcoholic drinks, so don't try to pull the wall over her eyes. She knows better." She said with a serious eye.

"Don't worry." I said taking a deep breath. "I learned my lesson the first time." I grinned. "No more drinking for me ever again."


End file.
